Birthright In The News
In addition to the launch Monday evening of Ten Days of Birthright Israel: A Journey in Young Adult Identity, Birthright seems to be in the news quite a bit this week. It’s probably only a coincidence that 8000 participants have descended on Jerusalem for the current cycle of programs.
From this mornings Jerusalem Post:
More Christians join Birthright trips
According to reports, an increasing number of non-Jewish participants, including devout Christians, have managed to get through the screening process of the program.
from the New York Jewish Week yesterday:
Behind the headlines: Birthright Israel’s Biggest Night
For one night, at least, there was a palpable sense of excitement and Jewish unity and pride in the cool night air of Latrun, and one can only hope that those good feelings will last a lifetime
and this from Jewcy on Monday:
Two Recent Articles Ask: “Birthright or Birthwrong?”
Is sending young adults to Israel for free a good idea?
updated June 5:
College Students Tell of Life-Changing Experiences in Israel
from chabad.org: As Israel’s summer tourist season kicks into high gear, the first waves of American young adults arrived in the country as part of the free 10-day trips for first-time visitors sponsored by Taglit-birthright israel.
Hey, What’s the Big (Jewish) Idea?
from The Current, an undergraduate journal at Columbia University: In many ways, Birthright Israel is the quintessentially successful Jewish program…
Birthright’s mission is an ambitious one. The trips to Israel, the program says, are meant to “diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry; and to strengthen participants’ personal Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish people.” While the goals are noble, the results are uneven.
Is Ten Days Enough?: Our Generation Claims Its Birthright
from PresenTense: As birthright embarks on an ambitious program to ensure that participants enjoy extensive infrastructure upon their return, it must navigate difficult waters. It must capitalize on the upcoming opportunities by reinforcing its message.
Birthright Israel, The Book
Sunday night was, once again, a Mega event. Then last evening, at the Jerusalem office of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, we gathered for the launch.
Introducing…
Ten Days of Birthright Israel: A Journey in Young Adult Identity
I sat Sunday morning with Professor Len Saxe of Brandeis, co-author of this remarkable story of Birthright Israel. He stressed that the over-riding goal is to tell the story of Birthright Israel. Why 10 days are important and the impact being created.
And, to begin a conversation that needs to be had.
“Although Birthright Israel’s emphasis is on Jewish identity, the program provides a fascinating social laboratory in which to understand young adults religious/ethnic identity and the impact of educational experiences. As a study of ethnic identity formation in postmodern society, it illuminates important lessons about how intensive exposure to ones heritage can be a catalyst for identity formation, as well as how educational programs can be made more engaging and effective.”
The next evening at the launch, co-author Barry Chazan, professor emeritus from Hebrew University, told us definitively, “this is not a trophy book”. In fact, “the book is designed to guide the reader through the educational and cultural journey undertaken by program participants…
our goal is not to promote the program but to explain and critically assess how and why it operates”.
For those of us tuned into Birthright, we know the numbers are impressive: we are presented with, among other facts, the measurable increases in support for Israel; connection to the Jewish people; and a desire to raise one’s children Jewishly.
The success is apparent by the significant growth Birthright has achieved since its 2000 beginnings. In the first year, 10,000 participated. This year, 42,000 are expected. We are also exposed to the profound changes coming to our community when such a large percentage of those eligible become program alumni.
I had a glimpse at some of the research results earlier this year; even so, as I started reading the book this morning I find the lessons to be learned powerful. I will certainly have more to say shortly.
eJewish Philanthropy has decided to provide a direct link to Amazon (located to the right, at the bottom of the sidebar). We have spoken about new books previously, but this is a first. It is a reflection of the importance we place on bringing the lessons learned to the forefront of discussion and for us all to absorb the impact Birthright Israel is making on the next generation.
We understand books are currently being shipped from the publisher; eJewish Philanthropy will donate all commissions earned through this link to Birthright Next.
update: My friend Haviv Rettig from the Jerusalem Post was with us at the launch. Here is what he has to say.
updated June 5: Sunday’s Mega Event, the video.
Making News This Morning
From The Jerusalem Post, Globes and Haaretz, respectively; on-point stories on our core themes.
Analysis: Misunderstanding the rich American uncle
American Jewish giving, like American philanthropy generally, is based on a culture of personal generosity that Israelis have never encountered and don’t understand. The American philanthropic industry is so large and sophisticated that an entire profession of highly-trained professionals, with advanced degrees in economics and management, exists to assist wealthy people (and literally thousands of American Jewish foundations) in giving away hundreds of billions of dollars each year in effective ways.
The Haaretz article Haviv refers to in his story is from May 12th: Let’s be done with all the Talanskys
Jerusalem is full of wheeler-dealers, functionaries, lobbyists, donors and philanthropists. There are rich men and middlemen, envoys and delegations, many of them with good intentions, but some without.
They wheedle and schnorr and contribute to various causes. It’s the kind of schnorring that begins with Shaare Zedek Medical Center and could end in court.
Knesset adopts tough anti-spam legislation
The Knesset yesterday passed in its second and third readings of a bill banning the sending of advertisements by SMS, e-mail, fax, and automatic dialing systems without the prior consent of the addressee.
and two very different articles on Birthright Israel:
Millions of dollars, thousands of participants… but it’s not clear that programs like Taglit-Birthright and MASA make the impact the founders intended.
We want the non-committed Jews
Free trips to Israel? That’s exactly what Taglit-Birthright Israel was born to provide, it appears. But program co-founder Charles R. Bronfman isn’t dismayed by the hordes of kids who see the program as a vehicle for a free vacation. On the contrary.
“I think that’s great. That’s our target market. We weren’t after the committed Jews. Nobody needs to use public money on people who are already committed,” he says gleefully. “The people we wanted were those who were not committed. The only thing that would get them to Israel is a free trip. Then Israel does its magic, and all of a sudden they change as human beings.”
Jewlicious Goes International
Upon learning this morning of one of the new ROI Small Grants being awarded to jewlicious.ru, I asked David Abitbol, aka Mr. Jewlicious, Machane Yehuda resident, friend, and occasional contributor for this guest post on the new jewlicious.ru; it’s in the third person; but here is the original “ck”:
Jewlicious recently announced the creation of Jewlicious.ru - a Russian language version of our popular Jewlicious.com web site. Jewlicious.ru originated as a result of a conversation that began at the 2007 ROI summit between summit participant Tanya Gutsol and David Abitbol, the creator of Jewlicious.com, who was moderating the Content Delivery track at the Summit. Tanya, who hails from Kiev, Ukraine where she was staff at the local Hillel, had recently visited the Jewlicious Web site.
Tanya enjoyed the various posts related to Israel and Jewish related issues. The combination of politics and pop culture was something she hadn’t ever seen before and she thought it would be something Russian language readers would enjoy. “There are all these Russian Jews who have no idea that Jewish culture can be cool.”
At first Tanya suggested a Russian language Jewlicious magazine made up of both original content and content translated from Jewlicious.com. Mindful of the expense and time involved in such an undertaking, David suggested instead a Web site, just like Jewlicious but in Russian. Given the size and geographical dispersion of Russian speaking Jews around the world, this was clearly the way to go. Sure enough, a week later, the site was ready and Tanya and a small crew of other Russian speaking ROI alumni got to work translating and creating content.
Recently, Jewlicious.ru received modest seed funding from The Schusterman Foundation and the Center for Leadership Initiatives in the form of a grant from the ROI Small Grant Fund. These funds will be used to help promote the Web site and recruit more staff. A mere two months old, and using only word of mouth publicity, Jewlicious.ru is attracting an impressive 500 unique visitors a week. Of course the site’s potential is much greater than that and with a little more hard work and support, Tanya is certain that she will be able to reach 10 times that number of readers in the short term.
The site itself is slickly designed and the content includes a number of interesting stories. For instance, there’s a post about Dmitry Salita, a native of Ukraine who is both an undefeated boxing champion, an Orthodox Jew and the subject of a recent feature length documentary called “Orthodox Stance.” There is also the first person account of a Muscovite who went to Jerusalem and described her time studying at Pardes, a progressive, co-ed Yeshiva that specializes in text study. Add to that the usual collection of Jewish events and cutting edge music and you have some pretty compelling content geared towards Jews between the ages of 18 and 36, regardless of the language they speak.
Jewlicious.ru seeks to act as a bridge between young Russian speaking Jews and the English speaking Jewish community. It is hoped that this cross cultural fertilization will serve to encourage greater unity and communication amongst communities that traditionally have very little informal contact with each other. These efforts are already bearing fruit as Jewlicious contemplates various real-world activities and events in the Former Soviet Union.
If you want to help or if you’d like more information, feel free to send an email to jewlicious@gmail.com.
updated May 25: Meet Tanya and read her poignant and personal post, Israel and Judaism: What’s normal, weird, awesome, cute, eternal? on 60 Bloggers.com.
Around Our Jewish World
Three articles this week of particular interest to important themes on this blog.
What’s Next For Birthright Alumni an editorial by Gary Rosenblatt
Michael Steinhardt is never satisfied.
That’s what drives some of those who work with him crazy at times. But it’s also what drives his success as a businessman and major philanthropist.
While much of the Jewish community, here and in Israel, has been heralding birthright israel — the audacious project he helped found to give every young Jew in the world a free trip to Israel — as the most exciting and successful of efforts to increase Jewish identity, Steinhardt has been grumbling that it’s not enough.
from the Spring 2008 issue of HaYidion: The RAVSAK Journal
Philly Jewish paper accused of kowtowing to its funder
A controversy over the renaming of a Philadelphia-area day school is raising questions about the delicate relationship between the local Jewish newspaper and the federation that funds it.
(eJP note: while this article was originally published in The Forward, we find it significant that it has been picked up by Haaretz. The issues raised from this gift have been reverberating in Philadelphia for about a year and are relevant to all organizations in the Jewish communal world).
All Eyes On Me: Happy Birthday Israel!
Taglit Birthright Israel’s latest YouTube video is a fun-filled romp across the country in celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary on May 8th. Starring Tasha and Dishka, two Israelis from Ramle and early YouTube sensations with their Hey! clip (22 million views!), these two lip synch to the Carsitters “All Eyes on Me” as they make their way across Israel. The lead singer of the Carsitters is none other than Noa Margalit who I met at last year’s ROI120 Summit and this video was produced by Leah Stern, another ROI2007 alum and, well, me. The point of the video was to show an image of a fun and vibrant Israel - said image being more reflective of our daily reality than what one tends to see in the media. So now you know what I’ve been doing all of the last week - consorting with rock stars and traveling up and down the country in the company of serious Israeli babes.
Anyhow… here it is! Enjoy, rate, comment and share with your friends and family.
David Abitbol, is the founder of Jewlicious.com, an occasional contributor and adviser to eJewish Philanthropy on new media.
Pay It Forward; Birthright Style
In an article in this morning’s Jerusalem Post, McGill professor Gil Troy, writes about the Birthright 2.0 challenge:
“The best way to say “thank you” for the Birthright gift is to “pay it forward,” giving something of yourself to other Jews. Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt started this visionary festival of philanthropy which the latest gifts continue. Each of us, whether connected to Birthright or not, should imitate these guerrilla philanthropists. Rather than waiting for permission from the Jewish establishment to lead, they pushed the Jewish establishment to follow.
They and their partners have invested their time, money, passion, and souls into this program. In the process, they not only transformed the Jewish world, but — added bonus — they made the world a better place by triggering a new generation’s idealism and altruism.”
Read the complete JPost article here.
A New Capacity Building Grant for Birthright
The Birthright Israel Foundation will be the recipient of the largest grant ever provided by the Jim Joseph Foundation. The $17.5 million gift, to be distributed over the next five years, will provide $5 million in trip support, and an additional $12.5 million as a matching grant for building community initiatives among young adults after the trip.
The program’s success has been remarkable, and that success has generated unprecedented demand from young Jewish adults to travel to Israel. Over 160,000 young Jews worldwide—110,000 of them from the North America—have participated in the Taglit-Birthright Israel trips since the program’s inception in 2000.
“It is our goal, and our hope, to allow every qualified young person who applies to have the chance to visit Israel,” says Shimshon Shoshani, CEO of Taglit-Birthright Israel. “The support of the Jim Joseph Foundation comes at a critical time as applications continue to outpace available spots this summer by a ratio of two-to-one.”
Birthright Israel’s thinking is bold and the plan the Foundation co-created with them is ambitious; a draft of which you can read here.
Along with the gift to Hillel’s Campus Entrepreneurs Initiative, the Foundation has a potential for engaging up to 100,000 young Jewish adults for whom Judaism is currently only tangentially related to their identities.
According to Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director of the Jim Joseph Foundation,
“The complementary nature of the two initiatives position the Jewish world to be responsive to realities of the “twenty-something” Jew in ways neither commonly available nor readily accessible now.
Working together, Birthright Israel, Hillel, and JJF postulate that we have designed a scalable model for invigorating the lives of young adults, ages 18-30, with Jewish content, values, and meaning.”
Get Down With Moses
Celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary with a new dance from Moses. Brought to you by Birthright Israel.
Chag Pesach Sameach
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem
Steinhardt’s Newest Gig
Breaking News as reported by Jewlicious:
Michael Steinhardt, a breadwinnerist, philanthropist, aspiring zoologist, and out of the box thinker-ist has just unveiled a new plan to his Jewish posse while out on business in California: a network of kosher Cannabis clubs to be developed, managed, and operated by Jewish young adults, ages 18-26. The new venture, called ‘Project Greenright’ (don’t get too creative here Mikey) has plans to open its first club in Los Angeles on April 20th 2008, near the Pico/Robertson district, and after a 3 day evaluation period, has plans to expand all over the West Coast, East Coast, and eventually Israel.
read the complete post here